As a result of advances in technology and enormous increases in the number of wireless device users, the size and complexity of wireless communications networks has greatly increased. One consequence of such increases in size and complexity is that the relative increase in operational and performance problems associated with communications networks has also increased. Reliability issues, such as dropped calls, lack of coverage, poor audio quality, and application failure often lead to user frustration and to increased costs. As new services are introduced that use even more complex technology, exercise different usage modalities, and place additional demands on networks, network performance continues to be a prime concern. In fact, quality of service often has a direct impact on a service provider's profitability. Therefore, improving quality of service is a top priority for service providers.
Network monitoring solutions are well known in the art and widely employed by service providers. Typical approach to network monitoring includes placing probes at various points in the network to determine if network elements are functioning according to specification. Sometimes referred to as “sniffers”, “log monitors” or “event monitors,” these monitoring systems are effective at identifying performance issues with a particular network element, but they often fail to capture problems that stem from the interfaces among network elements.
In a practical network monitoring implementation, however, not all packets that pass through a particular monitoring point are examined in detail, but rather they are sampled (for example, one in every thousand data packets that flow through a sampling point may be examined in detail). In such a scenario, because the various metrics for any given flow are now necessarily expressed as estimates with a mean and a variance, taking the maximum of the data counts will result in an upward or downward bias in the estimated metrics.
The solutions that are currently available can only monitor and diagnose subsets of the overall telecommunications system in limited ways rather than providing a holistic view of network and device performance that may be needed to efficiently identify and resolve quality issues. Accordingly, there is a further need in the art for a reliable and flexible network monitoring approach that processes all relevant data for all subscribers.